Instance grouping guide
Any team play is obviously founded on the skills of the individual players as well as the power and skills of their characters. However, the strategies used to apply those skills as a team are as important to the success of the team as their individual skills; a completely disorganized party almost never succeeds in defeating difficult content. The key to PvE grouping is usually to use threat appropriately. A mismatched or poorly specced team that understands aggro can still be very successful. A "perfect" party will also usually fail if they make grievous strategic mistakes such as trying to tank in Berserker Stance or nuking before the tank has a chance to build threat. Main Roles The most essential team strategy consists of three simple roles divided between team members: Tank, Healer and damage dealer. The tank establishes aggro on the enemies and recieves most of the damage for the party. The healer heals the tank, allowing the tank to continue to take a beating. The damage dealers, by the support of the tank and healer, actually deal the damage necessary to eliminate the enemies. It is important to acknowledge the ability of an appropriately specced character to play a role. Many players still maintain biases that are based on past versions of the game and failure to understand game mechanics. Tank The tank's job is to hold aggro on the enemy, whether the enemy is group of weaker monsters or a hard-hitting, long-lasting boss. The primary way to do this is to build high, permanent threat on enemies through character skills designed to create a great deal more threat than is possible by pure damage. The primary tank classes are the Warrior, Paladin and Druid; the talent builds for tanking in those classes focus on the Protection, Protection and Feral trees respectively. Healer The healer's job is primarily to keep the tank alive to do their job. There are obvious situations where other characters need some healing, but a situation where the priest is required to heal most of the party a lot is a sign that there is a problem with threat management. Blizzard names the Priest and Druid classes as "Primary Healers", and Paladin and Shaman as "Secondary Healers". Generally, any player specced for healing abilities is preferable to an off-speced character such as a shadow priest or protection paladin. Damage Dealer Every class has the ability, with the appropriate talent points and gear, to deal significant damage. While most classes have specific damage-dealing talent trees, the mage and rogue classes are the classes most concentrated on dealing high damage. Other Roles A team using the three basic roles, with appropriate character skills, is ten times more likely to overcome difficult content than the same characters acting seperately. Organized use of a few more tools and roles will again make the team several times more likely to succeed. *The Leader (mark mobs with Raid Target Icons) The leader is responsible for selecting targets for Crowd Control, damage, and off-tanking or kiting. *Puller (start the fight with the first hit on the mob) - After around level 30, this role is best fulfilled by a Hunter who has several special abilities for performing it. Failing that, the best practice is for the tank to pull via a ranged weapon or to wait for Crowd Control to begin the fight. *Crowd Control (CC, take mobs temporarily out of the fight) - Often hinges on the type of the mob. Polymorph is the most popular, but most parties have several Crowd Control abilities available. *Since the advent of the raid icons, the Main Assist isn't used that much anymore. In some cases it's still invaluable to have one; rotating through a series of mobs is much easier through one coordinator. *Off-Tank a second tank, sometimes really important in large pulls *Scout (aka "The Reconnaissance") - A stealthed rogue or druid, a priest with Mind Vision, different minimap tracking abilities; this role helps eliminate unnecessary guests by knowing when and who to attack. *Rezzer - Responsible for reviving the fallen, especially after a wipe or near-wipe. Via any kind of Wipe Recovery, a Paladin, Shaman or Priest is used to revive the whole party. Marking up mobs Before the pull, the group leader should mark with raid icons all mobs which will (or could) be pulled. The players must agree on a order in which the mobs will be killed. Normally a fixed symbol is used to designate the mob which is to be the initial primary target (usually Skull), whereas other symbols indicate the CC targets. The general kill order should be healers first, casters second, anything else third. Healers prolong the fight and casters usually do high amounts of damage, while both are usually relatively easy to kill. If there are too many mobs to mark them all, or if the group just feels lazy, it is a good idea to desginate a Main Assist (MA). The main assist should be a dps class with no other in-combat duties (like healing or CC; generally the Rogue). Party members should not pick their own targets, but rather always assist the MA. The Assist Main Tank/Main Assist macro/mod makes assisting very quick and easy. Crowd Control When there are large groups of mobs that cannot be pulled individually, CC skills become very important. The group leader needs to know the capabilities of each party member and when to use them. There are many such abilities (the most well-known being the Mage's Sheep). See crowd control for more information. Breaking CC early (by damaging the CC'd mob) is one frequent reason for deaths. All group members need to be aware which mobs will be CC'd, and those applying the CC need to take extra care to refresh it when it breaks. The Combat Cycle The combat cycle that you see many times in any instance run consists of several phases, described hereafter. * The pull * Aggro building * The battle * Post battle The Pull Every group should have one designated puller. He should try to pull one mob cluster at a time without aggroing more mobs than absolutely neccessary, and pull clusters in a logical fashion. The most common mistakes novice players make when pulling are: * Failing to designate an official puller. In such a case, too many times two people pull different clusters at the same time, producing a wipe. * Pulling a mob that is too close to a second group, which aggros the other group. * Pulling before Sap, as Sap must happen before combat begins. Polymorph and Freezing Trap are both preferable forms of crowd control to Sap, but it can be used as a third form if the other two already have a designated use. For maximum safety, the party should wait some distance away from the mobs, and the puller should run to the group after gaining aggro, so if the pull is bad, only the puller dies and the party is safe. This requires discipline on the part of the puller to be ready to stand there to die, or to Feign Death or Vanish, and on the part of the healer to not heal, and on the part of the tank to not try to save him. Parties with a Hunter present can make use of a pulling tactic called the Perfect Zone of Ultimate Safety which, if done correctly, allows for 100% protection from bad pulls for the entire party (occasionally excluding the Hunter himself, if they are chosen to pull). Additionally, at level 70 Hunters gain the invaluable ability of Misdirection, which allows them to transfer the initial aggro they gain onto the tank. Aggro building After the pull, it is imperative that the group does not immediately start blasting away with all available means. Give your tank enough time to build solid aggro on the mobs. Especially warriors need to build some rage before they can seriously create aggro. One safe method is to wait until the tank is at 50% health. If he's a warrior, waiting for 2 to 3 Sunders on the mob is a good idea too. Don't shoot, don't backstab, and try not to heal - the only permitted action for non-tanks in this stage is crowd control. Feel free to sheep, sap and shackle, but stick to some plan. Priests with Holy Nova can also use this early in the pull. It heals those in AoE, and damages all enemies while causing NO aggro. But pay attention not to accidentially break CC. Similarly, Prayer of Mending and shamans' Earth Shield on the Main Tank are very good, because they do not create aggro on the healer, but rather on the tank. Warlocks and hunters, turn off auto-cast of torment and growl on your Pet or Voidwalker, since this draws mobs away from the tank and prevents him or her from being able to build aggro. It would sound like having aggro would be good on your pet, as long as it's not on a squishy, but if it's not in the predetermined plan, it is detrimental because the aggro can easily slide onto someone who is delivering a large amount of damage on the target, whereas if the main tank had aggro the whole time it would be easier for him to hold that aggro. Also, pets generally have less health than a main tank, and many healers don't think to heal the pet unless it's preplanned. And once that pet is dead, it is most assuredly going right for the healer or squishy dps. The Battle Battles in an instance should be precise and controlled. Novice players often behave the same way in an instance that they would when soloing. They separate and attempt to fight individual skirmishes. This defeats the entire point of grouping, and virtually guarantees a wipe. Instances are designed to be almost impossible for a single player, so your group must try to act as a single entity. The most common mistakes novice players make during battle are: * Scattering, thus drawing adds. * DPS failing to assist the main assist. * DPS overpowering the aggro off of the tank. Biggest reason for most wipes. * Non-Protect spec warriors trying to be tanks. * Tank failing to keep aggro off the Healer or Nuker. * Pulling entire groups of mobs. * Failing to act as a team. * Breaking crowd control (Sheep, Hunter traps, Sap, or Shackle). * Looting during battle. This is highly unwise because it diverts attention away from the battle as the group members examine the loot popup. It is especially detrimental to the tank and the healer in their abilities, or else if they stay on their task, they may lose out on a loot roll. * Fearing, because fear will frequently cause mobs to run away randomly into other mobs causing more aggro. In many fights (boss fights in particular), there is usually more to watch out for than simply tank and spank the mobs. Make sure you aren't making life harder in battle by standing in range of an AoE attack when you're a long ranged attacker, or standing in places that may get you attacked by patrols or other nearby mobs. On the same note, watch out for mobs that can fling you away, into the air. They'll run at you and you'll go flying – make sure this doesn't send you toward another group of mobs or maybe worse, off the edge of a cliff. When possible, fight these mobs with your back to a wall. Post Battle First of all the group needs to stay together post-battle. One easy mistake is that the next mobs are pulled too early before the casters have regained enough Mana. The most common mistakes novice players make post-battle are: * Abandoning Casters who are regenerating mana. * Wandering from the group, becoming lost or aggroing mobs. * Failing to wait for members who need to accomplish quest tasks. * Failing to wait for everyone to be resurrected before looting. Remember: It's as much the Leader's job to check everyone is ready, as it is your own. You can help by making sure you communicate in plenty of time if you are ready or not; equally the Main Tank should check to see if the group is ready for the next encounter. Dying and Wipe prevention You're gonna die. You've only got a little health left. There's a monster beating on you or a spell flying at you and in a few more hits it'll be all over. What can you do? DO NOT RUN! You can't escape, the mobs (in essentially all cases) will follow you all the way to the instance entrance. When running, you're also more vulnerable, block, dodge and parry don't work any more and you will be dazed. Running just makes it harder for people to help you. It makes it harder for the tank to get the mob off of you and save you. You might aggro more mobs making the rest of the party's time even more miserable. Running does nothing to help you. The only situation where running is allowed is if you are sure that a wipe will occur and the instance entrance is not far away. It is also important to look for a safe spot to die when you have a self-rez (like Soulstone or Reincarnation). In that case, don't turn around but use strafing (default 'Q' and 'E' keys) instead. Do let the rest of the party know that you have aggro, the healer and tank may not have noticed. A simple yell of "HELP" will do. The tank has ways to pull all mobs onto him or a Healer usually has a way to be able to stop you from taking a limited amount of Damage. Do remember to pop a Healing Potion, don't be shy to ask party members to provide one or two. If death is inevitable, try to find a place clear of mobs to make resurrecting you easier. Don't release on death. This allows you to share the rewards after the battle. It also leaves your name above your head and a dot on the mini map so the healer can find you to Resurrect. It is often hard to locate a dead party member in a pile of corpses or in lava if he has released. If a wipe is about to happen, the party should concentrate on keeping someone alive who can Resurrect. The leader should make the decision that a wipe is inevitable and announce this to the rest of the party. Prior to that announcement, the party should without compromise try to fight and win, after the leader announced the wipe people should take the appropriate actions without doubt or hesitation. If a wipe will occur, the party must try to assure that somebody able to resurrect will either survive, or be able to self-rez after the wipe. If the pull has gone bad, but the healer is not yet in combat, he should run back to a safe place and just watch the others die. If the rezzer is already dead, a druid could use Rebirth on him, after that the rezzer should again stay out of combat. Wipes can sometimes be prevented by a Survival Hunter. If the main tank is dead, the Hunter can drop an Explosive Trap, activate Deterrence, and engage in temporary melee tanking in order to attempt to at least ensure the survival of the Healer. If a non-healing Paladin is also present in the group, they can augment the Explosive Trap with Consecrate, as well as helping the Hunter tank if they still have enough health. Any rogues can use vanish and hunters can Feign Death to put themselves out of combat (and thus survive the wipe). If they happen to be an Engineer and bring jumper cables, they have a chance to resurrect the healer. Any Shamans in the party can use their Reincarnation ability, and every rezzer can be soulstoned to self-rez too (see the Soulstone article for details on its usage). One good rule of thumb is not to use self-rez abilities while the combat is still going on, unless you died in a very precarious position and there is still at least some shot to survive. Paladins can place another live resurrecter out of combat and safe with their Divine Intervention spell. Additional Tips * Curiosity Killed The Cat Don't touch any usable 'cog-icon' objects until the entire group is rested and ready. Several instances have usable bits and pieces - doors, levers, buttons, etc, and many of these will spawn new enemies. Only do so when everyone is ready and alert. Also, don't talk to NPCs - even friendly ones may start some event or attack you after a short dialogue. * Watch Your Back! One common feature of the Instance is triggered 'Patrols' being spawned behind the party when it reaches certain key points. Just because you've killed everything you've seen on the way in, doesn't always mean there's nothing behind you. Have someone keep an eye out behind. * Listen to your party. In the end this is a group effort and, as such, decisions have to be taken to benefit all. Also, do not be afraid to ask. Being marked as a newbie is better than causing a wipe because you were too afraid to ask if you could activate something and did it anyway. Although it's often forgotten, everyone was a newbie once. * Not Out Yet. Similarly, just because you've made it to the end of the map and killed the big monster with the exotic name, it doesn't necessarily mean you're done yet. Further scripted events on the way out should not be ruled out, and if the expedition has taken longer than two hours, (wipes, etc), respawning becomes a possibility. Stay together and on high alert until the party is out to the Meeting Stone and breathing fresh air again. Fear Be particularly careful using fear in any Instance, as more often than not, fear may draw more mobs and turn a close call into a hopeless battle. As a general rule of thumb, simply don't use fear in an instance. Cases in which fear would be an acceptable thing to do are only when: *You are the healer and are about to die in a situation where the group can obviously not survive without you. *You are saving the healer or the tank when he is about to die and the group can obviously not survive without him. *You are absolutely sure that there's no possible way for the fear to draw adds. That said, Fear can be a valuable CC tool in some instance situations. Warlocks in particular have tools to allow them to control their feared target(s). However, this should only be done by experienced players who know how to handle feared targets and are willing to go to the effort, as Fear yo-yo tactics can take a great deal of attention, lowering DPS noticeably. In general, this form of CC should be treated as a valuable asset, but also as a last resort. Ingenuity It's important to keep in mind that classes can, with the right spec, gear, and player behind it all, perform roles not generally thought standard. There's a lot to be said for player ingenuity and determination. These people may not bring the standard, expected utilities to the group, but that doesn't mean that what they bring isn't useful. More common examples of this include, but certainly are not limited to: * Retribution Paladin; A DPS class complete with a damage-increasing aura and Judgement, limited CC (Hammer of Justice and Repentance), and the ability to refresh other Paladins' Judgements. * Elemental Shaman; Often considered a PvP build, Elemental Shaman can deal strong DPS in PvE groups if used correctly. Also, although not specced for it, they can still offheal, and an extra Resurrect spell is always valuable. * Balance Druid; similar to the Elemental Shaman. Machine gun Moonfire can be a highly effective form of damage, if somewhat mana inefficient. A skilled Moonkin with points in Natural Shapeshifter can also shift out and perform off-healing if required. Don't be afraid to accept a Moonkin into your group; with a skilled player, they can be awesome. * Survival Hunter; although commonly derided as lacking in damage output, a Survival Hunter will often have talents for reducing trap resistance, and can thus trap more reliably than Hunters of other specs. Deterrence and Survival's boosts to melee can also mean that a Survival Hunter can serve as an offtank for a limited (ten second, generally) period as well, which in conjunction with the pet makes a great bodyguard for healers. * Subtlety Rogue; A great scout, which can also offer Sap as CC and some degree of melee DPS. * Warlocks; Soulstone is a wonderful form of insurance for healers. Banish can also be a useful form of CC against demons or elementals, and some of their minions can offtank. All of those naturally bring the basic utilities of their class with them, as well. Of course, those are roles that have an entire talent tree devoted to them. There are even more creative (and very effective!) builds out there. Don't discount a group member as lacking worth merely because (s)he wishes to play an unorthodox role in the group. If you're the group leader, it's your job to know what your group is capable of and to work with it. Speak to the person about his/her build, learn what its capabilities and limitations are, and then decide if it's something that the group needs at the time, as you would anyone playing a more standard role. How Not To Do Things A serious problem that is often encountered with players within WoW in particular is that although certain activities within the game (raids, battlegrounds, etc.) ideally benefit from a level of group discipline vaguely approaching that which is usually only otherwise seen within real-world military groups, the people playing the game will almost exclusively consist of civilians who are thus entirely unaccustomed in many cases to working within a group in such a focused and controlled manner. This lack of familiarity with a desirable level of discipline is in itself probably the single main cause of wipes and other failures during instances or other group-oriented activities within the game. Poor Group Dynamics Ask most good group players what they hate worst in other group members, and generally what they say will break down to "People who don't do their assigned job." If you wish to build a class that often performs a certain role as something else, that's ok. However, you should let your group know beforehand what your desired role within the group is to be. If your group does not need you in that role, either be willing to perform the role the group needs, or find another group that's more accommodating. Within the group dynamic, each member has a certain expectation of what the other group members will be doing. When a member goes against these expectations without letting the group know in advance, chaos ensues, and a wipe is probable. Most of this guide is obviously geared toward pickup groups or guilds that haven't yet established much routine in grouping or raiding. If you're in a group that already works, you probably don't need this guide. But what if you're in a group that doesn't work, and there doesn't seem to be a way to fix it? The best course of action is to simply find another group before even starting the instance. Even a way into an instance, a hopeless situation is not made better by suffering through it; if your party can't handle trash mobs, bosses should be out of the question. If that's not an option, ask the group leader to handle it, or ask to take the lead in order to secure the group. If you are the group leader, then you'll need to make sure everyone knows their role; but be careful not to tell them how to play their class, as this is not a leader's place. The most important part of a successful group is positive attitude. Don't forget to acknowledge your group members when they did something good, but also speak up when they make mistakes, and if you realize they still don't understand, then warn them. Boot them from the party only as a last resort. Give lower level players a chance to run the instance; this might not be your first character, but it might be their first, and as such they may not be totally clear on their class's role. Also, be positive and don't yell at players after a wipe; rather, explain to them how the group may improve. The next step Stepping it up to Raiding? Raiding for Newbies. Category:Guides Category:Newbies Instance Grouping Guide Instance Grouping Guide